“George Soros had been an extremely successful hedge fund manager for over 20 years before gaining fame for taking a $10-billion (U.S.) short position against the British pound in 1992. He is said to have “broken the Bank of England,” and is believed to be the first person to earn a billion dollars in a single day. Now, precious metal remains his No. 1 overall holding, as Mr. Soros has nearly 10 per cent of his assets invested in the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD). He also owns call options, which could increase his ownership stake in the coming months. Even though Mr. Soros has stated publicly that gold could fall prey to bubble mania, he remains invested because of his general lack of faith in the global economic recovery and efforts undertaken by the world’s largest economies to support currencies like the dollar and euro. The large gold position is further evidence of Mr. Soros’ willingness to take a large bet in what could be a risky trade. He feels he will know when to get out, so why not make some profit on the mania before the bubble bursts?” Ryan Barnes Reports From The Globe and Mail.

According to his fund’s latest filings with the SEC (as of March 31), Mr. Soros has been adding to his already large overweight positions in the oil & gas sector. His largest stock holding remains Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, which trades in the U.S. via an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) with the ticker symbol (NYSE:PBR). Petrobras is a vertically integrated oil company, participating in exploration, production, refining and retailing of crude oil and gas. Mr. Soros’ funds also added to positions in Canadian energy producer Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU), and Houston-based oil & natural gas producer Petrohawk Energy (NYSE:HK). All told, Mr. Soros has about 30 per cent of his long investments in the oil & gas space – more than twice the weighting of the S&P 500 index. Smaller positions that saw buying during the first quarter include Apple Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE:GT), Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN), CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) and DirecTV (Nasdaq:DTV).

Barnes goes on to say, “While Mr. Soros sold out of his large Citigroup (NYSE:C) holding during the first quarter – dumping over 94 million shares of the megabank – positions were built up in JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) and PNC Financial Services (NYSE:PNC). And while consumer stocks remain the lowest weighted sector in Mr. Soros’ holdings, there are some proverbial toes dipping back into the water, with recent additions to stocks such as Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Best Buy Co. (NYSE:BBY), Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) and True Religion Apparel (Nasdaq:TRLG).”

“Keep in mind that not every bet George Soros makes – or any other hedge fund manager for that matter – is made public to the SEC. Only “long” investments need to be reported, so we can’t be sure how much hedging and shorting might be going on behind the scenes. But the overall trend that Mr. Soros seems to be following is one of weaker currencies, higher inflation and higher energy prices. It’s not the cheeriest of outlooks, but the beauty of investing is that you can profit from any outcome if you have conviction behind your vision – and the stomach to see it through,” Barnes Reports.

Here is our report on George Soros from back in May:

“Billionaire investor George Soros in the first quarter sold almost all of the 94.7 million shares of recovering financial services giant Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), which he had acquired last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As of March 31, 2010, New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC listed ownership of just 10,500 shares of Citi. On Dec. 31, the firm reported owning 94.7 million shares worth $313 million. The stake had been the fifth-largest reported by Soros at year-end. Shares of Citi plummeted from more than $55 per share in 2007 to less than $2 in 2009. So far this year, the bank’s shares have gained 17 percent to close on Monday at $3.86. Soros could have quickly doubled his money if he bought the shares near the end of the fourth quarter for around $2 and sold in March when they recovered to more than $4,” Reuters Reports.

Other Citi shareholders said they remained upbeat about the bank’s prospects. “For the last four or five months, we’ve seen fairly good progress in divestitures, reshaping and restructuring,” Marshall Front, a fund manager at Front Barnett Associates in Chicago, said. “Maybe progress has been more modest than some would have liked,” he added while declining to comment directly on Soros’s activity.

Reuters continues to report, “Soros also slashed a related bet in the Select SPDR Financial Sector Exchange-traded Fund (NYSE:XLF), which tracks a broad index of top banks. His firm reported owning 6.5 million shares of the ETF at the end of March down from 12 million shares three months earlier. By contrast, Soros added shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), one of Citi’s top competitors. Soros held 2.6 million shares of JPMorgan worth $114.9 million on March 31, up from 111,900 shares worth $4.7 million three months earlier.”

“The filings show that Soros continued to hold a large stake in gold. His firm held a total of 5.6 million shares of the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD) worth almost $607 million at the end of the quarter. Soros owned 6.2 million shares of the gold exchange-traded fund worth $663 million at the end of 2009. Overall, Soros spread out his bets among more different securities during the first quarter. The firm reported 870 different holdings on its 13-F filing with a total value of $8.75 billion on March 31, up from 716 holdings worth $8.85 billion at the end of December,” Reuters Reports.

Related posts:

1. Keeping Score: John Paulson Right About Gold & George Soros Wrong…So Far (GLD, JJC, UUP, IAU, GDX)
2. George Soros Is Selling Potash Corp. and Buying GOLD (GLD, POT, RL, LULU, FXI)
3. Investing: The Potential “Big Trade” That Will Put George Soros To Shame (GLD, VXX, SLV, TBT, TLT)
4. Oil Trade: George Soros Doubles Stake In Weatherford International (USO, YPF, WFT)
5. Like George Soros & Steve Cohen, South Korea Is Buying Gold (GLD, CEW, EWY, RSX, THD)

NYSE:GLD, XLF